Pro-Life activist Mark Houck was violently arrested by federal agents at his house on charges of violating the FACE Act, our nation’s federal protection for abortion mills. Houck faced upwards of 11 years in prison and a $350K fine over the October incident in which he was alleged to have had an altercation at an abortion facility.
Representing Houck, Peter Breen of the Thomas Moore Society (the same law firm that represented Grace Community Church), claimed that prosecutors out of DC are handling the case, implying that this goes high up in the DOJ. Breen described how the fake victim Houck defended himself from was a routine activist known for vulgarity who repeatedly tried to have the Pennsylvania courts rule against Houck only to fail. For one hearing, he did not appear against Houck.
On Monday a not guilty verdict was read, and Mark Houck was acquitted on charges. Catholic News Agency reported on the struggle to gain an acquittal:
The jury began deliberations on the case on Friday but said they were deadlocked and would not come to a decision that night. They resumed deliberations Monday, and an alternate juror took the place of one of the original jurors at about 1:30 p.m. After a brief deliberation, the jury found Houck not guilty on both counts.
McMonagle spoke briefly on the implementation of the alternate juror.
“Early this morning, we were notified that there was an issue with the jury, and one of the jurors had to be excused, who was not participating, quite frankly, in the deliberation process,” McMonagle said.
“And we quickly worked to try and bring in an alternate juror. He came in and within an hour of him getting here, there was a unanimous not guilty verdict,” he said.
Merrick Garland has been a very vindictive Attorney General and his liberal agenda just suffered a major defeat. Praise God.
